Dual personalities appear after the Broncos loss to the Bills

That thud you just heard was the Denver Broncos crashing back down to Earth.

The question now: Which team is the real one? The team we all saw humiliate the Dallas Cowboys? Or the one that just looked completely lost in Orchard Park, N.Y. in a 26-16 defeat to the Buffalo Bills? In my mind, the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

I don’t think they’re as good as they showed against the Cowboys or as bad they looked against the Bills. When a team doesn’t score touchdowns on offense and gives up big plays on defense, you won’t win many games in the NFL. When you add turnovers to the mix and questionable decisions from the coaches (going for it on fourth down trailing by four points and terrible field position), you make the task even tougher.

There’s no doubt some fans will complain about the officiating, but Denver put itself in that position. You must buckle up your chinstrap and not let it effect you or the team. The Broncos didn’t do that in any way, shape or form on Sunday.

“It was all around a bad day for us as far as critical football,” Vance Joseph told the media after the loss.

After what we all saw in Denver in Week Two against the Cowboys, this was a bit of a surprise. Perhaps bigger depending on where you fall. The key now is to not get too carried away over the outcome. There is still some good for the Broncos to take away from this, as hard as it is to see right now. As Peyton Manning would say, you don’t get too high with the wins or too low with the losses.

Keep in mind, the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Chicago Bears and the New England Patriots needed late-game heroics to hold back the Houston Texans. In other words, it happens in the NFL, and it’s only Week Three. Try to find the good in this game, as Joseph and his coaches will.

The biggest good is the Broncos rush defense is for real. They just held the best rushing offense in the NFL the last seasons to 75 yards on 33 attempts. Denver once again held one of the best running backs in the league next to nothing. LeSean McCoy had 21 yards on 14 carries. The Bills leading rusher was Mike Tolbert, with 11 carries for 41 yards. There is no longer a question when it comes to that aspect of the Broncos defense.

The other is Denver’s rushing offense, namely Jamaal Charles. What I saw on Sunday is what I saw in training camp - a running back who still has big-play ability anytime he touches the ball. Charles led the Broncos with nine carries for 56 yards, for an average of 6.2 yards per carry, and a touchdown. As a team, Denver had 23 carries for 111 yards.

There is good to take away from this game, if you get past the anger, shock and ineptness. How the Broncos respond in Week Four against the Oakland Raiders will show us all a lot.

Which Denver team will we see? We can all hope it’s closer to the one we saw against Dallas than Buffalo.